Colorado AG fighting compensation filed by Denver man

Colorado’s attorney general is fighting a claim for $1.9 million in compensation filed by a man who spent 28 years in prison for a rape conviction that was eventually overturned.

The attorney general’s office said Friday that Clarence Moses-EL’s case may not meet the requirements of Colorado’s Exoneration Act. The office says that while he was acquitted in a 2016 retrial, DNA evidence in the case was destroyed so there’s no way to know if he’s actually innocent.

The exoneration act, passed in 2013, provides $70,000 for each year a person is wrongfully incarcerated.

The Denver Post reports a state court will determine whether Moses-EL is actually innocent.

Moses-EL also filed a lawsuit against the City of Denver in December alleging malicious prosecution, destruction and fabrication of evidence and other claims.

A Denver man who spent 28 years in prison for a rape and assault he did not commit is filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, a former district attorney and police investigators.